Plain sailing for Ford crew at inaugural Secunda rally
ANOTHER dominant performance by the Ford Performance team at the weekend saw of Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton chalking up their third consecutive victory in this year’s national rally championship by winning the inaugural Secunda Motor Rally in their Ford Fiesta S2000.
They led from start to finish, winning the first five stages on the trot, and but for a slow puncture in stage nine after they clipped a fence and lost the Fiesta’s roof vent and rear wing, it was plain sailing for the Ford crew.
“With the vent sheared off we struggled with dust in the car, but the team did well to fix it and we could cruise to victory,” an elated Cronje said.
For Henk Lategan and Barry White (Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo) it did not work out so well. Their charge was ended when they clipped a gate post 5km into stage nine which broke their right rear wheel.
With their retirement Giniel de Villiers and Carolyn Swan (Castrol team Toyota Yaris) moved up into second place, but were under pressure from Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries in their return debut for Volkswagen Sasolracing team.
Fekken and Arries slowly closed the gap on the Dakar champion, but in stage nine a broken wheel scuppered their chances of a good result, while team mates Gugu Zulu and Hilton Affray, who lost 30 seconds due to a time penalty when the gearbox on their car was changed, were now up to third.
Meanwhile reigning champs Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee (Castrol team Toyota Yaris), on a charge after a disastrous day, were winning stage after stage and with the demise of Lategan and Fekken inherited fourth position.
At the finish De Villiers and Swan were 51.4 seconds behind the winners, with Zulu and Auffray, in their first outing together, scoring a podium and Poulter and Coetzee a distant fourth.
In the S1600 class Guy Botterill and Simon Vacy-Lyle (Yato Tools Toyota Etios S1600) won the class in style, more than a minute ahead of their closest opponent, and finishing sixth overall.
The next South African rally championship, the Bela-Bela Rally, will take place on June 19 and 20 in and around Bela-Bela area in Limpopo Province.